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Yosemite Ranger Notes

About This Blog

Ranger-naturalists have been interpreting the natural and cultural resources of Yosemite for park visitors for nearly a century. In this blog, some of Yosemite's park rangers share recent observations from around Yosemite.

Yosemite Valley is a place best characterized by the contrast between stalwart permanence and ephemerality. Nowhere is this more evident than Yosemite Falls. Granite, 100 million years old, pitted against individual drops of water whose tenure on the canyon wall is a mere blink of the eye as they travel between the high-country snow and the Merced River. Following the course of the waterfall itself, we can find tenacious inhabitants. Lichen, the union between algae and moss, proliferates.

The grand features of Yosemite National Park have a magnetism that draws not only individuals, but entire generations of people back time and time again to bask in its rich splendor. Yet, a lifetime of our own visits only represents a brief heartbeat in the constantly changing existence of this dynamic landscape.

If you have ever spent time in Wawona, chances are you have fond memories of splashing around in one of the area’s many marvelous swimming holes, or spending a lazy afternoon reading a book with your feet in the water. Here in Wawona, we are lucky to be located along the South Fork Merced River, which not only offers many great places to swim, but also serves as the main source of our drinking water. This year, has been grim for the South Fork. With several exceptionally dry years in a row, the South Fork is currently extremely low.

August 29 marked the 142nd Anniversary of the first recorded ascent of Mount Lyell, Yosemite’s highest peak (13,114 feet). J. B. Tileston made that ascent in 1871. He left his base camp at four in the afternoon the day before he summited. Darkness found him bivouacked high in the mountains where he....

Sometimes the planet Earth seems like an inventor constantly coming up with new ideas. On a walk near White Wolf earlier this season, I was surprised to find a jammed-together patch of milk-white rocks almost two feet long; geologists call this pegmatite.